Agricultural implements such as crop harvesting implements in the form of windrowers and pull-type mower-conditioners may use a rotary or sickle-type cutterbar to sever the crop from the ground. The crop is typically conveyed over the cutterbar and up the platform deck, and through a conditioner to be processed to facilitate crop drying, with the crop leaving the conditioner and engaging forming shields so that the crop forms a windrow or swath on the ground.
Conditioners generally breach the stem structure of the crop so that the sun and air can work to dry down the crop faster than if the stem structure remains intact and retains the moisture within the stem. Conditioners of known design include impeller conditioners, angled steel conditioners and roll conditioners. A roll conditioner includes a pair of opposed conditioning rolls, typically generally vertically oriented to each other and defining a nip therebetween. The crop passes in a rearward direction through the nip and is crimped by the opposed conditioning roll.
Conditioning rolls usually include an outer surface with cleats which assist in feeding the crop material through the conditioner. The cleats are known as lugs (also called flutes) when outwardly extending, and grooves when inwardly extending. Under certain operating conditions, the cleats may not be aggressive enough to effectively feed the crop through the conditioner evenly.
What is needed in the art is a roll conditioner with opposed crop processing rolls which evenly and reliably feed crop material through the conditioner under all crop conditions.